Federal vs. provincial

Canada have two major types of immigration programs, or classes: federal and provincial.

Federal immigration programs allow applicants to obtain permanent resident status in Canada and settle wherever they wish in the country. Federal programs do not give preference to applicant’s ties to any specific Canadian province. They are based on the requirements that are common for the all-Canadian labor market and human resource demands.

Most known and popular federal programs are Canadian Experience Class (CEC) and Federal Skilled Worker program (FSW).

To the contrary, provincial programs are developed to satisfy the needs of particular Canadian provinces. For example, one province may demand more miners and oil drillers, another may currently have shortage of construction workers. Such trends are reflected in the requirements of provincial immigration programs.

Most known provincial immigration program is the one of Quebec. It welcomes francophone people to the province to support its distinctive culture and encourages them to live and work in Quebec.

Obviously, it is essential for the province that the successful immigrant under the provincial program live and work in that province, since he was selected under the program targeted to satisfy its demands. Therefore different mechanisms are employed to encourage newcomers under provincial programs to settle in the same province.

For example, under some provincial business immigration programs newcomers must invest a certain amount into the economy of the province, and will lose the money if they decide to leave the province within a certain period.

Other way to encourage newcomers to settle in the province, that is used in almost every provincial program, is the requirement that successful applicant have close relatives or friends in that province, or have previously studied or worked there. This gives some degree of assurance that these ties will help a newcomer to choose this province his new home.

Why apply under a provincial program

Recent changes to the Federal Skilled Worker program, that was the most popular “independent immigration” program in Canada, made it much more difficult or even impossible for many applicants to be selected under this program.

Therefore, other options are to be considered, including a variety of provincial programs. While requirements vary, some of those who cannot anymore apply under the Federal Skilled Worker program find themselves eligible under provincial programs.

Processing

Processing cases under provincial programs is slightly different from the federal ones.

Usually the provincial authority receives an application and make its decision about applicant’s eligibility. With this written decision an applicant then submits the paperwork to CIC, where final processing takes place.

Since provincial programs are less busy than federal ones, they usually process applications quite quickly. When the positive decision is made by the province, the rest of the processing in CIC is usually done within reasonable terms, because in fact the procedure may involve just some background checks and formal approval.

Forecast

Major changes to the Federal Skilled Worker program will force provinces to review their immigration programs in order to process more applicants, not eligible anymore under any federal program.

It is likely that in near future provincial programs will undergo some changes to become more flexible and to be able to process even more applicants.